An end-pumped Nd:YLF laser was demonstrated, which delivered 60.3 W continuous-wave and more than 52 W Q-switched average power for all repetition rates from 5 to 30 kHz. To achieve this, an analytical solution to estimate and optimize the unsaturated gain in an endpumped laser gain medium was derived. The approach presented here should open up the route for scaling end-pumped lasers to even higher power and energy levels.